There’s no doubt that enabling the integration between Team Foundation Server (TFS) and SharePoint has numerous benefits (source control, workflows, document storage, collaboration, report dashboards, etc.) but of course there are always situations...

First the good news: This module/add-in/extension (pick your favorite naming convention) for Internet Information Services (IIS) is one that helps ease an age old problem: the first user to request a page from a site that’s not currently loaded...

Quality considerations are of paramount importance in the software business. It has long been understood that the costs of defects rise significantly when they are not caught early. The agile community, for example, refers to “failing fast”...

Let’s face it, when it comes to software development there’s always a bit of tension when a tester enters a bug and assigns it to the developer who worked on that piece of code. No one likes to have someone say: “ Hey, you made a mistake...

Employing the security development lifecycle (SDL) has grown from desktop based applications to now cloud based applications. While building great software is significant, it’s crucial that the end product is secure and free of exploits (or at best...

I recently read an article about Bill Buxton, principal researcher here at Microsoft and it struck a chord with me. Bill is a visionary and has enough accolades to fill up an auditorium but what I find intriguing is that he’s focused on the natural...

I get asked a lot of questions (I’m still working on “how exactly big is the universe?”) but one that always comes up is the following: “Is there any training available for [insert product name here]?” Thankfully I normally...

Similar to building a high quality application , how the application performs is just as important and is everyone’s responsibility. I mention all parties because while most of the performance tweaking does indeed fall on the development staff ...

Sure, its spring and the last thing you want to think about is snow filled days in November but it’s never too early to plan for the next ALM Summit . While this conference isn’t free it does have some fantastic speakers on tap, namely two...

I’ve been creating quite a few videos lately as trying to convey to developers or other I.T. related staff a specific concept or how to accomplish a certain job via plain old text is sometimes a daunting task. Yes, KB articles, code samples, conference...

A lot of developers who I speak to have come up with some very creative ways to interact with Team Foundation Server (TFS) and while some of these methods aren’t fully supported it just goes to show that if there’s a need then there’s...

Virtualization technology certainly has changed the game when it comes to software development. Long gone are the days of hoping or guessing that the application developed will work on a disparate number of computer systems. Testing was possible but there...

Most developers will say that “ testing and documentation have their place but right now I need to churn out code .” While developer’s need to develop without anyone handicapping their efforts, testing in a large part goes hand in hand...

Users demand high performance reporting along with real-time data so when the reports they use are slow or even worse not functional, you’re sure to hear about it. Because performance issues, especially in a distributed product such as SQL Server...

Building security into a system is difficult especially today as applications are more diverse in nature and span multiple technologies. Never the less, curtailing exploits and vulnerabilities from a development standpoint should be a high priority for...